Tuesday was a VERY long day!
The House Natural Resources committee began their meeting at 9 in the morning and we did not leave until 10 at night.
LOGA President Mike Moncla, along with LOGA members Tommy Smart, Bryan Hanks and Bob Meredith were there testifying against anti-CCUS House Bills 4, 75, 353, 380, 522, 537, 553, 601, and Senate Bill 73.
SB 73, which essentially just states that local governments have a right to be heard in public hearings, is the only one that made it out of committee.
The rest were either killed or voluntarily deferred, but Rep. McCormick’s HB 75 is already back on the schedule in the Natural Resources committee to be heard again on Wednesday, (5/7) along with a number of other anti-CCUS bills. Several will also be heard on Monday (5/5) in the House Ways & Means committee. We will be back again to oppose.
Speaking of Ways & Means, we were there on Monday to support Rep. Ken Brass’s HB 383, which postpones the termination of a tax credit for C-corporations for local inventory taxes paid. The bill was voluntarily deferred.
By the way, when we say “voluntarily deferred,” that basically means that it’s clear that the bill doesn’t have the votes to pass on that particular day, so the author pulls it from consideration to either A) work on whipping more votes, or B) work on amending it to make it more palatable for the committee members.
One of our priority bills passed out of the House this week, Rep. McCormick’s HB 205, which would allow more pressure (up to 0.5 lb limit) on saltwater disposal wells and make Louisiana more competitive with Texas. It now goes to Senate Natural Resources, and we are working with DENR Secretary Tyler Gray on palatable language for both sides.
Rep. Geymann’s severance tax legislation is currently scheduled in Ways & Means on Monday, but that is the same day as the Elephant Stomp golf tournament (which we will be cooking at), where a large percentage of legislators will be playing golf. We are working on getting Rep. Geymann to push it back a week or at least a few days.
Thursday is when Rep. Landry’s two legacy bills, HB 602 and HB 634 are up in Natural Resources. We had a productive call with Rep. Landry yesterday and we’re still hashing out the details on amendments.
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